Mio Cyclo 305 HC GPS computer - first look

Mio Cyclo 305 HC GPS computer - first look

Garmin are the dominant force in the on-bike GPS market but a new brand – Mio – has just arrived in the UK looking to steal a share of the pie and we’ve been handed one their Cyclo 305 HC GPS units to test.

Mio might be a new name to many but the company’s heritage is in car sat-navs so they’re not going to send you down a cul-de-sac, while Paligap, whose brands include Avanti, Ritchey and Torq, will be looking after distribution in the UK.

Mio are launching in the UK bike market with two units, the 305 and the 300. The difference between the two? The 305 comes with a heart rate strap and cadence sensor, and can be bought with UK maps for £309.99 or Western Europe maps for £349.99. The 300 doesn’t come with a strap or sensor and has UK maps only, and that’ll set you back £259.99.

Pull the 305 out of the box and you have a rugged and well made unit, designed in Belgium and assembled in China, which is bigger than Garmin’s top-of-the-range Edge 800, but with a three-inch high-res and anti-glare touch screen which clearly displays the pre-installed Open Street Map and TeleAtlas maps, plus it’s very responsive and is easy to navigate around. Mio use a similar stem/handlebar mount to Garmin – twist the unit and it’ll lock into place.

The 305 boasts all the features you’d expect from a GPS unit; you can navigate to an address, a point of interest (including bike shops, emergency locations and cafes/pubs/restaurants) or a point on the map, while you can also follow a route you’ve plotted online and uploaded to the device.

Most interesting, however, is the Surprise Me feature, where you select the length of your ride (in time or distance) and the Mio will map three possible routes in three directions. The success of this depends on the device’s ability to select a route suitable for cycling so we’ll see how we get on, but it’s an interesting feature nonetheless. Once you’ve finished your ride you can upload the data to the Mio Share desktop application.

Battery life is 12 hours, while in the box you also get an instruction manual, mains charger, USB cable, mount, heart rate strap and ANT+ sensor. So there’s a quick overview of Mio’s debut cycling-specific GPS unit. We’ll give it a whirl and let you know how we get on.

From a scan of their website, there does not appear to be any mention of 1:25,000 mapping available, surely if this is to be used for off-road use this is essential.
Do you know whether this facility is available?

Johnny numbnuts

3 years ago

No one cares about off-road mate

Dick Barton

3 years ago

Is it required with that level of detail? Is 1:50k enough with your own eye to also way up the directions?

Dick Barton

3 years ago

also weigh up…not way up

Craig Harris

3 years ago

1:50k doesn’t have enough detail, I’d also insist on at least 1:25k … I have 1:10k for some places

However, I can’t find any off road mapping on Mio’s website, and there’s not much information about loading your own maps etc, so right now I’m unconvinced, plus the price is top end too.

serge the seal of death

3 years ago

i have always found 1:50000 fine, 1:25000 is only useful for field edges etc.

Johnny numbnuts

3 years ago

Who cares if this doesnt look like its for use off-road, its not essential as us on-road proper cyclists dont need it!

Off road, what a joke.

Best satnav ever this, better than garmin 800

yong

3 years ago

me and my mates have been using Garmin Edge 800 for offroad. the trails that we ride in one can get lost.
btw, “on-road proper cyclists”…not sure what is that…

Robert Shaw

3 years ago

I checked with the Cyclo product manager, and the devices uses vector maps, which can be scaled with no loss of quality and so aren’t directly comparable with raster maps – which can’t (be scaled without loss of quality) because they are basically big images. Hope this helps.

Damian Murphy

3 years ago

Any thoughts please. I just bought a Milo 305 HC. Unfortunately the mouting device is for the handlebars and I want to mount it on the stem. If I mount it on the stem with the provided mounting accessoires it will face 90 dgrees to one side or the other. Does anyone know a sollution as I can’t seem to see any other way out of the problem, Thanks Damian

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